Exchange Cafe

As others have said, the biggest problem this place has is consistency. I guess they figure that because they have a largely captive audience (thanks, shitty U of T eating options) they can get away with so-​so food and people will keep buying it. Sadly, they are probably right.
In the past I’ve had a salad special, with proscuitto, goat cheese, strawberries and balsamic dressing, that was fresh, great tasting and amazing value at $ 7.50. But recently I paid about the same for a small bowl of lukewarm pasta in blah tomato sauce (it literally tasted like they emptied a can of tomatoes into a pan and kind of warmed it over) with a few bits of spinach and some sausage that was still cold from the fridge. It was like something an eight year old would cook for his first meal and be super proud of. I had to go buy a felafel afterwards to get some flavour in my mouth.
Likewise, and as another reviewer noted, the salads sometimes have their own, in house dressing, which is great, and sometimes have plastic packets of chemical crap (even though the salad will still be labelled as having homemade dressing — oh really, you packaged your own salad dressing in little plastic sachets?) Avoid the pre-​packed sandwiches in the chiller cabinet, they are stale, flavourless and ALL contain sprouts (ew — no, I don’t want green pubes on my sandwich, thanks so much). The salmon and steak dishes have been ok on occasion, but again as others have noted, they are usually WAAAAYYY overcooked, to the point of inedibility, so I don’t order those anymore.
At other times they are just bafflingly disorganised. Recently they were «out of eggs». This is a place where almost half the menu consists of breakfast dishes!
The prices have also just kept going up since this place opened a year or so ago. And yet the food is no better (and you’re still expected to clear your own table).
Still, the coffee is decent. The service is friendly, even if the kitchen can’t seem to keep its stuff together. If they got a decent chef in who knows how to run a (well-​stocked!) kitchen and cook consistently well, without making basic, sloppy errors, this place could be much better.

We went here for a lunch meeting last Monday, and ended up having to settle for breakfast food because they were out of several basic ingredients. When we expressed surprise, we were told, «Welcome to Mondays!» [Note to self: do not eat here on Mondays.]

The Exchange Café is a welcome addition to the U of T campus. Located in the new business school building, it comes complete with a gas fireplace and lots of light from floor to ceiling windows.
My go-​to item here for breakfast or lunch is the breakfast bagel: egg, cheese, bacon, avocado, tomato, and lettuce. I’ve tried a few of the soups as well and some of the prepared salads/​sandwiches. It’s definitely a step up from the standard campus eateries, and I applaud their efforts to use locally-​soucred, sustainable food.
The thing that keeps it from scoring higher is the consistency. The breakfast bagel, for example, hits the full range from 1 to 5 stars depending on the day. I’ve loved it and wanted more some days and thrown it out before finishing it on others. Kitchen management needs to step up quality control.
Staff are always friendly.